Aftermath
by QueenPersephoneofHades
Summary: Sequel to 'Possibility'. The Team learns of Nightwing's death, and must face the pain of accepting it. ON HIATUS!
1. Conner

**A/N: ****I was honestly amazed at the amount of reviews I got when I posted 'Possibility', and so here we are again! 'Aftermath' will be centered on the Team's reactions, so be prepared for multiple chapters! I'll start with Conner, him being one of my favorites. :) Let the show begin**!

It was silent in the bioship on the ride back. M'gann was still sniffling in the pilot's chair, her eyes filled with never-ending tears throughout the whole ride. Artemis remained at the back of the ship, out of sight of the others, but Conner could hear the muffled sobs coming from back there. Conner sat near the front. He felt like he should say something - anything, really - but he can't. He just stares ahead out the window of the ship, his face shell-shocked.

Nightwing was dead. Nightwing was _dead._ _Nightwing_ was dead.

The weight of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks, and yet he did nothing to suggest even the slightest bit of sorrow. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do _anything, _because the words '_ohmigod-what-the-hell-just-happend-he's-_dead' just kept running circles around his brain, not making any sense.

It was Jason Todd all over again. Ever since the squirt had gotten himself blown up three years ago, Conner couldn't deny that he'd been expecting something like this to happen... just not this soon, this suddenly, to someone he'd known ever since he'd gotten out of that god damned Cadmus pod.

And the fact that it was Kaldur - **_Kaldur_ **- who'd done it just made it even more discombobulating.

Kaldur, their former teammate. Kaldur, their leader. Kaldur, their friend. Kaldur, the one who'd freed Conner from Cadmus' control in the first place. Kaldur, the humble stand-in who'd known from the beginning that Nightwing - Robin back then - was always meant to lead the Team instead.

A cold feeling washed down Conner's spine, breaking him free of his numb shock.

What would they do now? The Team had been absolutely perfect with Nightwing at the helm, leading them as naturally as Batman led the League-

Oh god. _What would they tell Batman? Or Robin? Or Batgirl?_

His shock melted away, leaving Conner gripped in a tight, black hole of despair and terror and horror and '_oh-god-what-would-they-do-now?_'

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: Yes. I end it here. Hehehe... I am soooo evil! M'gann should be next! Laters peeps!  
~Persephone**


	2. M'gann

Conner's swirling inner turmoil and the faint pulsing of Artemis' grief was nothing compared to the deep, stabbing agony M'gann could feel picking away at her insides. Her heart was pumping irregularly; her lungs wouldn't work properly, making her gasp and choke on every other breath.

Tears flowed in an eternal stream, making their way slowly yet surely down her face. _Nightwing. Robin. _The names swirled about, not only M'gann's mind, but in Conner and Artemis' minds as well, making the pain impossible to block out or ignore.

Their little brother. Their little, annoying, nosy, hyper-energetic hacker of a brother. The one M'gann had slowly yet surely come to think of as the one that would always be there. Not a day had gone by in the cave where he wasn't there, hacking into government files to find their next mission or training with the newest Robin to make him stronger and faster than before. Sometimes, on rare occasions, she was able to convince him to try one of her old cookie recipes, and even if they came ou wrong he still told her as politely as possible what was wrong with them.

He had been the foundation of the Team, the light at the end of the tunnel, the wind beneath their wings.

M'gann almost snorted at that one; wings, Night_wing. _This whole situation was so crazy and ridiculous that she was making up stupid metaphors in her head.

But the pain only hit harder after her momentary joking.

_'There will be hell to pay for this,' _M'gann snarled in her mind, barely suppressing it from being audible to the others. When Kaldur had left the Team, he hadn't known about her recent willingness to use her powers. But he'd know soon enough; she'd make sure of it.

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: Was that OK for chapter two? This was my first time writing from M'gann's POV so I don't know if I did it right... Tell me what you think! If I did something wrong I'll rewrite the chapter! I'll see you all in the next chapter!  
~Persephone**


	3. Artemis

**A/N: Wow. I'm shocked by all the nice reviews! I've never actually written something like this, so this kind of reception for it is quite heart-warming, despite the angst of the story...**

**Y~*~J**

Artemis rung her hands together, her lips pulled together in a thin line of apprehension as she stared down at the limp 'corpse' of one of her best friends. So far, so good. All was going according to plan so far, but next came the hard part; replacing Nightwing with an actual body.

Of course, making one hadn't been much of problem; Wally, for all his joking, had been very serious and precise while making the Nightwing clone with the stolen Cadmus technology. Nightwing himself had refused to put this plan into action until he had checked every inch of the clone himself, to double check that it was exact, down to every last scar, burn and bruise he had ever sustained, along with the wound that had originally taken his life. After that, they had it cryogenically frozen to keep it fresh and to ensure any autopsy would pronounce him only a few hours dead at the most. Last but not least, it was outfitted with a Nightwing outfit and belt to fit the picture exactly.

The clone had been hidden in the back of the ship in a large container, out of sight of the others through the use of a concealing spell - courtesy of the unknowing Zatanna - and Artemis had quickly switched them, taking the clone body and laying it on the table while putting Nightwing into the container before reactivating the spell, sobbing loudly to muffle the bumps this caused. Quickly re-covering the clone with a cloth, Artemis sat back, allowing her heartrate to slow down slightly now that the danger of getting caught switching them was over.

Despite the fact that Nightwing himself had insisted on the plan, Artemis could feel a wave of guilt washing over her as she sat there, staring at the blank canvas covering the body underneath.

The League would never forgive them for this. Never. Not at all.

In fact, once they found out, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Superman, the Flash - hell, the whole _League _and the _Team _- would probably kill them for doing this to them, but its not like they had any choice. Artemis would've happily taken Nightwing's place, but Wally's absolute refusal to allow that had resulted in this whole screwed up situation.

'_Damn it Wally, look what you've done!_' Artemis couldn't help but scream in her head. Because of him, they were risking not only their friend's life, but their places on the Team or in the League _and _they were also more than likely to fall in the path of the Bat-Family's wrath once they discovered it was all a ruse.

This was a nightmare, and they were in the middle of it.

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: Was this good? I hope it was...  
~Persephone**


	4. Kaldur

An unsettling feeling of madly flapping butterflies had descended upon Kaldur's stomach, causing him to act strangely around the crew, but he simply couldn't help it.

Despite knowing full well that nothing bad had actually happened, that Nightwing was still very much alive and well, did nothing to settle them; if anything, that just made Kaldur feel worse.

The sight of his little brother, pale and unmoving on the ground after having been attacked by _him, _of all people, left Kaldur at first numb to the situation, then a bit frantic as they swam back to the base, and finally now that they were heading back to his father's headquarters with La'gaan in tow, it left him feeling queasy and shaky.

He had looked so... dead.

Of course, Nightwing had gone into great detail of the poison he had given himself; it was a non-lethal dose of a neurotoxin called curare, an infamous paralysis-inducing powder that was well known in South America that freezed muscle movements and slowed a person's heartrate to near non-existence for 24 hours. It was so thorough, even Superboy's super-hearing hadn't heard the feeble _th-thump _of Nightwing's heart as it worked to keep going against the poison.

But his words did little to stop the worry eating away at Kaldur's insides. In all the time Kaldur had known the little bird, he had always been moving - _hyper _and _energetic _were often words used to describe the former Boy Wonder - but now, he was as still and unmoving as a rock, and it was so completely unnatural for the bird that Kaldur had almost paused on the edge of the water, looking back at his friends on the beach and unable to believe that that unconcious body had ever been the hacker he'd known for five years.

It had been awful. And for as long as Kaldur lived, he prayed that he'd never have to see his friend like that again. Ever.

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: Yay, Kaldur POV! Sorry that I'm kinda stalling the Team's reactions; I've never done Batfamily fluff before, so I'm trying to figure out a way to do it without messing it up! This was also to answer the questions about Nightwing's heartbeat disappearing. I don't know if they used curare in the cartoon, but that's what I'm using in here, so don't judge!  
~Persephone**


	5. Jaime

He couldn't tell how he knew, but somehow, even as the bioship was gently falling into place on it's landing pad, Jaime Reyes had a deep feeling that something very, _very _bad had happened on the mission.

He'd been alone for once in Mount Justice, all the other members either off messing around in their civilian identities or going on missions with their mentors. The silence had been a bit unnerving, even more-so when the scarab started 'advising' him on one subject or another. After telling it to shut up for maybe the twenty-second time, the transmission had come in on the computer, Miss Martian's voice asking for him to open the landing bay doors.

"_Hurry,_" she'd said, her voice laced with unshed tears and suppressed emotion.

Jaime may not be the best people person, but even he could tell when something was wrong. So, instead of question her over the comm. link, he'd simply done as she'd asked and opened the bay doors.

'_Voice scan suggests the mission was a failure, and that the Martian is overwhelmed,_' stated the scarab.

Jaime quirked an eyebrow, casting a glance over his shoulder as if he could actually see the bug. "And why exactly would she get all teary-eyed over a failed mission? It's not like it's the end of the world," he said back.

The scarab remained silent, so Jaime continued through the halls of Mount Justice to the landing bay, but as he entered and the ship landed, the words seemed to sneak up on him and smack him in the back of the head. 'Why would she be crying?' Jaime thought. _Had _something gone wrong?

He got his answer in the form of Conner slowly leading a weeping M'gann down the bioship ramp with a distraught Artemis right behind them, her hair disheveled and eyes full of sorrow.

Wincing, and not sure he wanted an answer, Jaimed asked, "What happened? Where are La'gaan and Nightwing?"

This of course set M'gann off, and she collapsed into Conner's arms, bawling her eyes out into his shirt as her body shook with tremors.

Conner sent a half-glare, half-sympathetic look to the young Mexican before he effortlessly scooped M'gann into his arms and carried her down one of the mountains many halls, most likely to take her to her room to lie down.

His attention focused on this odd sight - Jaime knew full well that the two of them had broken up not long ago - he didn't notice Artemis behind him until she suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a pointed look with pained ash-brown eyes.

"We need to talk," she said, and suddenly Jaime's stomach flip-flopped.

_It's not like it's the end of the world._

Well, maybe it was.

**Y~*~J**

**A/N: I have _never _written from Jaime's POV before, so I don't know if it's right or not... Anyway, I must tell you all of my sudden epiphany! I have an idea for another fic that will be about the next Young Justice generation; not Invasion, but almost an entirely new cast with members from a bunch of different incarnations of the comics! Would you like to see it?  
~Persephone**


	6. Authors Note

**A/N: OK, please don't hate me, but I don't think I'll be able to update for a little while. *ducks and avoids the flying bottle and rotten fruit* I'M SORRY! But I'm kinda hitting a funk right now, and I also recently acquired '_Batman: Arkham City_' and have been playing it nonstop for about... eh, seventeen hours, give or take? Yeah. I'm obsessed. Deal with it! I'm also contemplating a Young Justice/Batman: Arkham Asylum crossover, and I've been dealing with ideas for that, so my mind is a little hyper-active and unable to focus on angst. SORRY! GAH WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? ! ? ! ? ! ?**

**~Persephone**


	7. Authors Note 2

**A/N: It is my displeasure to inform you, my awesome fans, that my laptop got a virus that wiped its hard-drive. Everything - my music, my photos, my stories, _everything _- is now gone. I'm already working on retyping what I had of the stories I've been working on, but it'll take a _long _time to get everything back up to speed again. I would like to ask that you all stay very patient with me and please don't bug me about updating for a while.**

**Thanks. Yours truly,  
~Persephone**


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